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LIU Daoying[a],*
[a]
SchoolofForeignLanguages,NantongUniversity,Nantong,China. andfrequentintheinternationalcommunication.Political
*Correspondingauthor. documentscanwellreflectsocialchanges,cultureaswell
asvalues.Thepurposeofpoliticaldocumenttranslation
Received2June2015;accepted29August2015
Publishedonline26October2015 liesinhelpingforeignerswhocannotreadandunderstand
Chinese,buttheyareeagertoknowmoreaboutChina.
However,thevoiceofChinahasnotbeenwellheardas
Abstract wehaveexpectedduetodifficultyinpoliticalvocabulary
Effective communication is more demanding as with translation.SovocabularytranslationfromChineseto
Chinasrapideconomicandsocialdevelopment,andan English is the biggest barrier in the international
increasingnumberofpeopleareeagertoknowChina communication. In order to offer an opportunity for
more,especiallyinpoliticalsystem.Therefore,itisof foreignerstobetterunderstandChina,translationplaysan
great significance to carry out in-depth study on how extremelyimportantroleinthecommunication,andit
Chinesepoliticaldocumentsandpoliciesareeffectively
servesabridgeconnectingwesterncultureandeastern
communicatedinEnglishwithinaninternationalcontext.
culture. Due to huge differences between these two
TheappropriatetranslationofChinesepoliticalwordsand
cultures, lots of misunderstanding and conflicts could
documents is the first and most important step to
ariseinthecommunication,andmanystereotypesarestill
understandChinesepolitics.Althoughgreatachievements
rooted without appropriate translation. Language is a
havebeenmadeindocumentarytranslationfromChinese
reflection of a culture, and there are lots of Chinese
toEnglish,potentialproblemsstillexist,affectingthe
politicalwordsandphraseswhicharenotabletobefound
understandingofforeignpeoplewithoutChinesecultural
withparallelonesinEnglish.Whenthereisnoparallel
background.Thepurposeofthispaperistoidentifyan
vocabulariesbetweenChineseandEnglish,itwillbethe
effectiveandappropriatetranslationstrategytoenhance
greatest challenge for translators to convey the ideas
the effectiveness of political translation, especially in
Chinese political words and phrases. This paper smoothly. This could cause even more negative
conductedananalysisofpoliticalvocabularytranslation consequencesintheinternationalcommunication.Inthis
fromdescriptivetranslationperspective,andrecommends paper, descriptive translation strategy is proposed to
a practical strategy to apply this theory into Chinese overcome these dilemmas to help people from other
politicalvocabularytranslation. countries understand China better in the international
communication.
Key words: Political vocabulary; Descriptive
translation;Strategy
Liu,D.Y.(2015).OntheTranslationofChinesePoliticalVocabularyin
1. DESCRIPTIVE TRANSLATION
Cross-CulturalCommunication.Cross-Cultural Communication, 11(10), STUDIES
15-18.Availablefrom:http://www.cscanada.net/index.php/ccc/article/
view/760DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.3968/7608
Translation is usually viewed as a communicative
bridge between the source language and the target
languageintheprocessofinternationalcommunication.
Translation,asacommunicativepurpose,largelyrelieson
INTRODUCTION translation norm to help information transition and
Globalization has changed the current communication interaction among speakers, translators and audiences
system.Interculturalencountersarebecomingcommon bothfromthesourcelanguageandthetargetlanguage.
15 CopyrightCanadianAcademyofOrientalandOccidentalCulture
OntheTranslationofChinesePoliticalVocabulary
inCross-CulturalCommunication
CopyrightCanadianAcademyofOrientalandOccidentalCulture 16
LIUDaoying(2015).
Cross-Cultural Communication,11(10),15-18
DistinctivenessisalsooneofthefeaturesofChinese translationstudiescanprovideatheoreticalframeworkfor
politicalwordsandexpressions.Distinctivenessrefersto languagetransition,anditisthebestwaytoexplainor
thequalityofbeingunique.TherearenoEnglishparallel reveal the meaning of Chinese political vocabulary in
wordsintheprocessofChinesevocabularytranslation, communication.
anditishardtoconductliteraltranslationforinternational According to the norms of descriptive translation
communication.Forexample,YiguoLiangzhiinthe studies,translatorsarerecommendedtolearntoselect
Chinese politics literally means One country, Two appropriatepoliticalwordsintranslation.Wordselection
systems.Thisisaconstitutionalprincipleformulatedfor isoneofthebiggestchallengesinpoliticaltranslationdue
the reunification of China during the early 1980s. It tocomplicationanddistinctivenessofpoliticalwords.
indicates Hongkong and Macau can retain their own Herbert(2000)emphasizesthatthereisnothingoutthere
politicalandeconomicsystemswhiletherestofChina in the real world that would conceptually suit these
uses a different political and economic system. Sige politicalexpressions,thereisnoequivalenttermorword
Xiandaihua is literally translated as Four in the everyday language. Political words must be
Modernizations. Four Modernizations refers to translatedwithinacertainspecificcontext.Reiss(1995)
rejuvenating Chinas economy from four aspects as considersthatequivalenceintranslationdependsonthe
agriculture,industry,nationaldefenseandscienceand type of text. Words and phrases, texts in one source
technology. They are goals set in the early 1960s and languagecanbeequivalentindifferentlevelswithits
enacted in the late 1970s. Sannong Wenti: Nongcun, targetlanguage.Forexample,BarongBachiisoneof
Nongye,NongminisliterallytranslatedasThreeRural themostacceptablesocialvaluesinChina,anditwas
Issues:Agriculture,CountrysideandFarmer.Thispolicy raisedasasetofmoralconceptsforcitizens.Nowords
refers to three issues relating to rural development in canbefoundtohavethesamemeaninginEnglish,in
China. All these political words have unique ordertopromotethisvaluedescriptivetranslationstrategy
distinctiveness,andtherearenoanyequivalentwordsin isintroducedinthistranslationduetoitsdistinctiveness.
Englishpoliticaldiscourse.Klaudy(2003)coinedaterm BarongBachiisliterallytranslatedasEightHonors,
calledcommunicativeequivalenceandthiscanbethebest EightDisgraces.Butthistranslationisstillcomplexfor
formofequivalencethatcanhelpthetranslatortransfer the audiences who dont have knowledge of Chinese
fromthesourcelanguagetothetargetlanguagewithin politics.Withdescriptivetranslationstrategy,thisphrase
political texts and documents. Communicative canbetranslatedasEightDos,EightDonts.Thissetof
equivalenceiscreatedtoconnectChinesepoliticalwords moralconceptscanbelistedasthefollowing:thehonor
anditsEnglishexplanationsduetonoliteralequivalence oflovingthemotherland,thedisgraceofendangeringthe
intranslation. motherland;thehonorofservingthepeople,thedisgrace
ofturningawayfromthepeople;thehonorofupholding
science,thedisgraceofignoranceandilliteracy;thehonor
3. TRANSLATION STRATEGIES OF ofindustriouslabor,thedisgraceofindolence;thehonor
CHINESE POLITICAL VOCABULARY oftogethernessandcooperation,thedisgraceofprofiting
Accordingtodescriptivetranslationstudies,focusliesin attheexpenseofothers;thehonorofhonestyandkeeping
what to translate and how to translate in the Chinese ones word, the disgrace of abandoning morality for
politicalvocabularytranslation.Yan(1981)proposesthe profit;thehonorofdisciplineandobedience,thedisgrace
tripletranslationcriteriaofFaithfulness,Fluencyand of lawlessness and disorder; the honor of striving
Elegancetoachieveanidealtranslation.Faithfulness arduously,thedisgraceofwallowinginluxury.Sointhe
requiresthatthetranslationinthetargetlanguageshould Chinese political vocabulary translation, descriptive
be faithful to the original text in the source language. translationstrategyisoneofthebestwaystosolvethis
Fluencyistherequirementofintelligibilityofthetarget problem.
languagetext,andthetranslationshouldfitinwiththe TranslationstillneedstokeepChinesedistinctiveness
grammarrulesofthetargetlanguage.Elegancerequires intheprocessofpoliticalvocabularytranslationfrom
translation should be esthetical. In his Evolution and Chinese to English based on descriptive translation
Ethics,onepartisdescribedas: studies. In the newly released political documents, a
varietyofpoliticalwordsarecoinedtofitinwithnew
(having)fusedandgatheredthemarvelousprinciplesofthe
wholetextinmymind,lowerbrushtowritethewords,and,if situations.VerbsaremoreusedinChinesetolinkwords
therenderingisagoodone,itwillsufficetocoverthemeaning. toconstructacoherentphrasethanpronouns,prepositions
Iftheprinciplesbehindthetermsinthesourcetextarevery and conjunctions. Translators must make sure the
profoundandhardtoexplain,thenthecontextisusedtoreveal structureofpoliticalwordscanbeeasilyunderstoodand
themeaning(p.xi).
accepted by the audiences for a target language. The
In the process of political vocabulary translation, descriptionofpoliticalwordsandphrasesisoneofthe
faithfulnessisthefirstcriteriatobeconsidereddueto most important strategies to manifest its political
lackofequivalencebetweenthesourcelanguageandthe intentions. Krisztina (2014) suggests to conduct
targetlanguage.Inthisprocessoftranslation,descriptive comparativestudyofpoliticalwordsbetweenthesource
17 CopyrightCanadianAcademyofOrientalandOccidentalCulture
OntheTranslationofChinesePoliticalVocabulary
inCross-CulturalCommunication
theory(pp.58-96).Helsinki:FinnLectura.
CONCLUSION Toury,G.(1980).In search of a theory of translation.Tel
Translation is a complicated means of Aviv,Israel:PorterInstitute.
communicationThetranslationofpoliticaltextsaimsat Toury,G.(1995a).Descriptive translation studies and beyond.
publicizingpoliciesandguidelines,introducingChinato Amsterdam,Netherlands:JohnBenjamins.
the outside world and also helping the foreign people Toury,G.(1995b).Descriptive translation studies and beyond.
understandChina.Consequently,itisvitaltotranslatethe Shanghai:ShanghaiForeignLanguageEducationPress.
politicalwordsappropriatelyandaccurately,especially Yan,F.(1981).On evolution.Bejing:TheCommercialPress.
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